Three weekends ago:
Disneyworld with Lily! We had such a great mother/daughter bonding, laughing, swimming, screaming (Space Mountain: me screaming, Lily laughing!), eating, running, oohing, picturesque weekend. We visited Magic Kingdom (winner: Space Mountain, hands down), Animal Kingdom (Dinosaur! GREAT ride!) and Epcot (the new ride, “Soarin’!” is fantastic: you can smell orange groves as you zoom past overhead…holy guacamole! It was cool!) Of course, yes, we did ride “Small World.” I always get weepy in that ride. I love all the children singing in all the different languages.
Two weekends ago:
Lance’s sister stayed with the girls so Lance and I could have a weekend…alone…at LAKE AUSTIN SPA!
Oh, rejuvenation! My favorite food in Austin. On the lake…landscaped gardens, meticulously attended to…
hammocks…swinging in those hammocks and watching the squirrels and ducks meander about…the water lapping the rocks…And we went on a balloon ride, high up in the air….floating silently (except for the occassional “ksssssshhhhhh” of the hot air being forced up into the beautiful blue and red silk of the balloon.) I love how the dogs below go nuts, jumping and barking, circling and falling, jumping back up, trying to snap at us. I love how children wave and enthusiastically holler, “helloooooo!’, long ago friends you are returning to….their hellos carry so much happiness, hope, wonder.
This weekend:
Friday night…went to the symphony and saw “Pink Martini” and danced, danced, danced!
Saturday night…I was in the “Vagina Monologues” at the Zachary Scott Theatre. Oh, oh, I think I like that acting business. It was thoroughly enjoyable…was it because I was getting people to relax about the vagina by reading a hilarious monologue, or was it because I didn’ t have to lug guitars and equipment with me?!
Sunday night: Sang at Threadgills. The rain was falling fast and furious with a spectacular lightning storm in progress, so I had the entire audience come get on the stage, protected by the wooden overhang, and we sang songs together and enjoyed the cool breeze. It was summer camp with Sara! I loved that we were all cozy together. I think stages are weird. They put us, the entertainers, over here….and the audience over t h e r e and we have to reach you across that void. I like when we can all be ONE. Maybe I can start writing it into my contracts that I have to be able to sit in the middle of the audience and NOT on a stage.
Oh, I can already hear the grumpy responses of how it’s just not done. WHATEVER!
Happy Memorial Day. Thank you to all the people who have given their lives so that we can be free. Thank you for all the fallen who have tried to make this world a better place. Thank you on behalf of those who have been in situations where they needed to stand up against cruelty and torture, knowing they themselves would be tortured for speaking out. God bless us all as we try to make sense of war and rise to a level where war will someday no longer exist…that, perhaps, everyone can experience true democracy: the ability to speak your mind without fear, the ability to express ourselves through art and music and dance…
the ability to live where you want and and be who you want and respect our fellow citizens with civility and
public debate.
Ok, Lily is standing over my shoulder so I can’t really concentrate on what I am saying because it is time to make SHRINKYDINKS! So, I apologize if my thoughts didn’t make any sense in the last paragraph.